Aside from their skeletons, the members of the Chondrichthyes
class also share other physiological and biochemical “peculiarities.”
In many species the young hatch from eggs inside the female body and are
“born” alive. Also, they use a unique method of retaining
the chemical urea in order to maintain the internal balance of body chemicals
in their salty environment.1

This is why many evolutionary biologists claim the two types
of marine creatures evolved from a common (i.e. the same) ancestor that
had all those features. However, there are also many differences that
continue to cause problems for this view. Aside from the obvious differences
in appearance between sharks and rays, they also use different methods
to breathe, and different ways of moving through the water.

The shark breathes by drawing in water through its mouth, passing
it over the gills and ejecting it through slits. But this method wouldn’t
work for rays, because many are bottom-dwellers and they would end up
drawing in water full of sand, mud and grit. Instead, rays have an opening
(called a spiracle) behind each eye on the top of their head, which draws
in clean water and takes it straight to the gills. It is then ejected
through gill-slits on the ray’s underside.2

The sting in the tail

Injuries to humans from stingrays tend to occur
when an unsuspecting person steps on a ray, causing the creature
to reflexively strike out with its tail.

The tail is thrust into the victim, usually in
the foot or lower leg, producing a deep, jagged laceration from
the serrated spine.

The stinger apparatus then injects a protein-based
toxin into the wound, causing immediate intense pain in the
victim.3

Resultant wounds produce sharp, shooting, throbbing
pain. The toxin can also produce a fall in blood pressure,
nausea, vomiting, cardiac failure and muscular paralysis. There
is no known antidote; however, death in humans is rare.4

The issue of a common ancestor for sharks and rays becomes
even more complicated when the variations between their own species are
considered. (There are 200 to 250 species of sharks and 300 to 340 species
of rays.5)

Sharks come in all shapes and sizes, and
all have incredible design features suiting their diet and environment. Those
that feed near the surface, like the Mako and Thresher Sharks, are beautifully
streamlined and powerful swimmers, allowing them to catch and feed on fast
tuna and marlin. Bottom-feeding shark species are stout, blunt-headed and
more sluggish, while shellfish-eaters have coarse, pavement-like crushing
teeth.6

Rays are typically categorized as either electric rays, sawfishes,
skates, or as members of one of the various families that have slender,
whip-like tails equipped with spines (generally referred to as “stingrays”).
Some have scales like a shark, some do not. Some give birth to live young,
some do not.

Rays have flattened disk-like bodies with
five gill exit openings and their mouth generally located on their underside.
They have large pectoral fins, which they move like wings to travel in the
water, and their tails are generally long and slender, with many species having
one or more sharp, venomous spines that can be used to inflict painful wounds.
Rays range in width from 25 cm (10 in) in the north-western Atlantic species
to 2 m (7 ft)—and up to 4 m in length—in Australian species.7

Some rays are bottom-dwellers, like the
stingray. These rays often lie partially buried in the shallows, eating worms,
mollusks and other invertebrates.8 Others use
their broad pectoral fins to dig shellfish from the sand or mud.9

Manta Rays, on the other hand, swim near
the surface. Mantas are the largest of all rays and use a very distinctive
“flapping” motion to swim. They are known to leap clear out of the water—possibly
to remove parasites, or just for fun.10 They feed
by moving through masses of macroplankton or schools of small fish, turning
slowly from side to side and using their prominent front “cephalic” fins to
fan prey into their broad mouth.11

Since ancient times, Chinese people have used the dorsal
fins of certain sharks and rays as the basis of epicurean soup.

Shark liver oil is used in various regions for tanning
leather; preserving wood; as a lubricant; as folk medicine against
rheumatism, burns and coughs; as a general tonic; as a laxative; and
as an ingredient of cosmetics.

About 110,000 tonnes of rays are marketed for food annually
in various countries around the world, principally in Europe and Asia.

Byproducts of rays include skins of scaleless species
for drumheads; those of scaly species are used for shagreen (a type
of leather).

Ray livers are used for oil, ray fins for gelatin.

People from many tropical regions—Polynesia, Oceania,
Malaysia, Central America and Africa—have used the spines of
stingrays for such items as needles and awls, spear tips and daggers,
and for the poison they contain.

The entire tails of stingrays have been used as whips
in various tropical locations.

One of the most amazing species of ray is the Electric Ray (also
called “torpedo”), which has large paired electric organs between
its pectoral fins and its head, used to give a powerful shock for either defensive
purposes or to kill prey.

This is an incredibly complex design feature.
It involves delivery of electricity by timing the nervous impulses that activate
individual cells capable of producing electrical currents (called electroplaques).13 The Electric
Ray is a bottom-dweller that feeds on invertebrates and fish. With its widely
extensible jaws, combined with its electricity, this typically sluggish ray
is able to catch very active fish such as flounder, eel, salmon and dog-fish.14

Interestingly, the ancient Greeks and Romans used the electric
shock of this particular ray to treat diseases of the spleen, chronic
headaches and gout. The word “narcotic,” used to describe
powerful pain-relievers, comes from the Greek word for Electric Ray, narke.15

The discovery of a new type of deep-water
ray, Hexatrygon bickelli, off the coast of South Africa in 1981, indicated
the possible existence of another entire stingray family. The specimen possessed
unique design features suited to deep-water life, and was classified by its
discoverers in a separate family and suborder. If such a totally new category
is confirmed, it will cause even more complications for those trying to determine
an evolutionary history for the ray.

Because rays and sharks are cartilaginous
fishes, their skeletons do not generally fossilize in the same way as those
of bony fishes. However, their teeth and scales have fossilized, and those
in the fossil record tend to indicate that the “ancient” ancestors of the
cartilaginous fishes were little different from those of today.16

Evolutionists have no idea how sharks and
rays evolved, either in their own class or in the broader scheme of marine
evolution. They say bony and cartilaginous fishes evolved independently,
“although the lines of evolution remain to be discovered.”17

Even the relationship between members of the Chondrichthyes class
is not without ongoing debate. The New Encyclopaedia Britannica admits
that the relationship of sharks, rays and chimaeras (see description below)
is subject to “varying interpretation”:

“Although both groups have many characteristics
in common, such as the possession of a cartilaginous skeleton …
the two groups may have evolved independently along parallel lines …
.”18

This idea of “parallel evolution” is often invoked
by evolutionists to explain amazing similarities which, for other reasons,
could not have come about through sharing a common ancestor. The obvious
explanation for such similarities, design by the same Designer, is “not
allowed.”

However, it is difficult enough to accept that, through blind
chance filtered by selection (ultimately in a chance succession of environments),
a species could develop specialized features such as a skeleton of cartilage
and the ability for young to hatch from eggs inside the female’s
body.

The concept that such features could independently
evolve in species with no connection to each other—again relying on blind
chance—is not only illogical, but without evidence.

Evolution-believers try to have it “both
ways”—shared design features are used to “prove” common descent, but when
this doesn’t work for other reasons, why, there is always “parallel evolution”
to fall back on.

The other theory, that the similarities
between sharks and rays came about because these were possessed by a common
ancestor, is also totally without evidence. There has been no find in the
fossil record to indicate such a creature ever existed. In fact, the fossil
evidence indicates that sharks and rays have always been sharks and rays.

The alternative explanation, that they were created as fully-formed,
separate kinds by God, seems a much more reasonable one. Although we
do not know for sure how many kinds of each were initially created (perhaps
only a very few, with great variety possible within each kind, as seen
in other organisms), the creation explanation is consistent with the evidence.

Beginner’s Guide to rays and their
like

Chondrichthyes:

The class in which sharks and rays are classified.

Elasmobranch:

The subclass of Chondrichthyes in which sharks
and rays are classified.

Chimera:

A member of the Chondrichthyes, but in a
separate subclass to sharks and rays. Also known as the “ghost
shark”. It has a single gill opening, covered by a flap,
as in bony fishes, on each side of the body. (Also spelt chimaera.)

Stingray:

Any species of ray with the traditional disk-shaped
body and long, whip-like tail with barbed spine.

Skate:

Not a “true” ray. It has large
pectoral fins extending from the snout and stopping at the tail.
Unlike other rays, its young emerge from eggs outside the body.
The skate does not have the long, slender barbed spine that
distinguishes stingrays.

Sawfish:

Another type of ray, with rough skin and
strong spine. It has a snout which is a long blade with a series
of strong teeth.

Eagle Ray:

This bottom-dweller is different from traditional
stingrays as it has a more identifiable head and pronounced
snout.

Manta Ray:

The largest of the rays, it can grow to a
wingspan of more than 7 m (23 ft). It is identifiable by the
“cephalic fins” extending from the eyes.

Freshwater stingray:

This species looks similar to the marine
stingray, with circular disk body, marked with spots. Its slender
tail is armed with a serrated, stinging spine. It eats worms,
crustaceans and mollusks.